Input on Combined Class

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Another potter and I will be 'team teaching' a 6-week long introductory class (2 hours each week) at a small local art center. I'll be doing the wheel part and the other potter will teach hand building. We'll both be present at the first class and then we'll take turns in the following weeks. First class will intro wheel & hand building. Second & third wheel only, fourth & fifth hand building only and the last class will be glazing. While we've both taught before, we've never done a team class. Any suggestions or words of wisdom to offer?

Thanks.

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Another potter and I will be 'team teaching' a 6-week long introductory class (2 hours each week) at a small local art center. I'll be doing the wheel part and the other potter will teach hand building. We'll both be present at the first class and then we'll take turns in the following weeks. First class will intro wheel & hand building. Second & third wheel only, fourth & fifth hand building only and the last class will be glazing. While we've both taught before, we've never done a team class. Any suggestions or words of wisdom to offer?

Thanks.

Plan the first class well. Make sure you cover wedging and other basics so that is not repeated later in the class or overlooked all together.

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Six weeks is not a long enough time to tech someone how to throw. You also don't mention how many students or how many wheels. I taught adult pottery at our city art gallery for eight years. You can barely get students to centre in 6 weeks. I would view it a survey class where you show various making techniques. Just let everyone try the wheel, but explain to them that realistically, they won't be coming out of there with a tea set.

TJR

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I usually just cover hand-building in 6 weeks with 3 hours per week. You guys have a lot on your plate trying to cover wheel AND hand-building in 6 weeks, so have a good game plan lined up, then keep to it so you can get the material covered.

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Another potter and I will be 'team teaching' a 6-week long introductory class (2 hours each week) at a small local art center. I'll be doing the wheel part and the other potter will teach hand building. We'll both be present at the first class and then we'll take turns in the following weeks. First class will intro wheel & hand building. Second & third wheel only, fourth & fifth hand building only and the last class will be glazing. While we've both taught before, we've never done a team class. Any suggestions or words of wisdom to offer?

Thanks.

I noticed you didn't say anything about age levels? So for simplicity lets assume adults. At the same time I think you would benefit from handbuilding first, and then cutting down the wheel time as you will only be exposing them to the wheel. A way around part of this may be to put wheel thrown additions on to handbuilt pots. These could be foot rings, spouts, lids with rims, or any other simple coil and thrown, or thrown piece. This way you could let the students produce more, and have more control over what their final project/s looked like. I taught adult classes for 12 years in 6 week sessions of 4 hours on Saturdays in February and March. This gave plenty of time for working, glazing, and planned and impromptu demonstrations nearly every session. Think it through carefully.

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Is it possible for you both to be there for all of the sessions and just divide the students into two smaller groups - those who want to learn more about throwing and those who would prefer to focus on handbuilding? It seems that in just the few sessions you are offering, there is too much to learn and not enough consistency. <div>I hope that it works out well and wish you much success.

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I appreciate all the input! I agree that folks will not gain much of a skill level in such a short course. This art center is in a rural area where folks have been reluctant to commit to an 8-week (or longer) session. We thought this class might be a good stepping stone to encourage folks to then take a longer, more 'one-skill' focused class. Class size is limited to 6 and students have free access to the studio two evenings each week in addition to the class time; and there is always a potter 'on duty' those evenings to assist folks. Our overall goal is for students to learn about the basic steps in handbuilding/throwing, make a few very simple pieces (probably handbuilt for keepers) and most importantly, to have an enjoyable experience and want to return for a future class. Thanks for all the replies.

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Just a follow up as to how the class went. From the written evals and from feedback in person, the students really enjoyed the class and were very satisfied with their learning experience. We were very clear about the class being just a very small venture into the wide world of clay, and about having realistic expectations.

They made amazing progress (some came in when the studio had open hours outside of class and it turned out that two of the six had a little prior clay experience). Thank you for all the suggestions.